Fade to Silence

Review

In a world that long ago was a land of beauty and prosperity, a place where man and nature lived in balance, now nothing more than a frozen wasteland that the corruption has laid waste to, you must survive in the relentless cold with dwindling resources and the odds stacked against you. The eldritch creatures that accompany the corruption are sinister as well as deadly; cross their paths unprepared and your soul shall be reaped. You are not alone in this nightmare world; others have survived as well. If alliances can be made, and with enough hard work, it is conceivable that society could be rebuilt. But without others to help in rebuilding the settlement, you are bound to fail. Explore the world for resources to ensure your survival and build your tribe as you slowly reclaim what is left from the destruction. Destroy the influence of the corruption and reclaim lands for from which to hunt and gather resources for your settlement, all while you piece together what happened here, and why!

Released on Apr 30, 2019 by the developer Black Forest Games, and published by THQ Nordic, Fade to Silence is an open world, horror, survival game with crafting. It features 2 game modes: Exploration and Survival. The exploration mode is much more forgiving and has no permadeath. Then there is Survival, which pulls out all the stops for a true survival experience. It does have permadeath; use up your allotted lives and it's game over. There is also a level system for your armor and weapons. Starting out you can only make a low level. The higher level of equipment will be needed as progress is made because the monsters will also become much more difficult. There is also a character upgrade system for Survival called Boons & Blessings, which require collecting shards across the world to purchase the upgrades. A dynamic weather system that is very well-done and what originally drew me to the title (I have a fascination with games portrayed in a winter setting). The storms can be brutal, so be prepared or your life will be on the line. The character-driven gameplay will challenge you to manage your followers and settlement's needs, and tough choices will need to be made. It also has full controller support (I did a test with my controller that went fine, I was still more comfortable using the keyboard and mouse for my playtime).

There are tons of options

Keyboard: Layout, which is remappable.

Gameplay: on/off tabs for tutorial tips, camera hit shake, sending gameplay data, sprinting cancels lock on, and Unit of temperature.

Audio: Sliders for global, music, ambient, speech and UI. Subtitles on/off.

Video: All the normal quality settings to allow for the best user experience, view distance, antialiasing, post-processing, shadows, textures, foliage, cloth, and Inverse Kinematics.

Controls: There are invert Y for mouse or controller on/off, vibration on/off, vibration strength and mouse sensitivity. There is also a controller layout section, these are not remappable.

We will be playing as Ash, as we start our journey, an other-worldly looking apparition is floating freely around our body, that is laying on the ground. The entity takes possession of our body and we awaken with a gasp. We have to find a way out of the crypt we are in. Once outside we are immediately attacked by the first batch of nightmarish creatures that we will encounter in the world (there are 8 in total). After we defeat them, we will clear the first bit of corruption from the world. Our daughter is now safe from the corruption, and we explore the area that will be our home base for the duration of the game. We will now head out into the wilds in search of items we will need to survive. As we play we will meet other survivors that we can choose to invite to our camp (there are 8 in total). They will be needed if you wish to upgrade your weapons and armors. As you forage you will need to clear all the corruption that has taken over the lands. Seek out and investigate the orbs left by the entity that are spread throughout the different zones; they will contain precious materials and the entity always has something to say. Build up your base and your crew and see if you can piece together Ash's story. Hunt, loot, gather and survive the frigid temperatures that can kill you, should you get caught off guard. Expand your influence over every zone to exploit its resources. From here you are on your own. I will not give away any of the game story or mechanics; these need to be discovered as you play.

I have been having a blast playing this week, nearly 30 hours in 4 days (I may be slightly addicted). I love a good survival game, especially those with a winter-based theme. Though this is not the most in-depth survival, it does cover the basics. Health, warmth, and food are the only stats you really have to watch. I admit that after a few attempts at the survival mode and getting wrecked I decided to play the exploration mode to learn the combat and game mechanics before I dug fully into the survival mode. I did have a little problem with the game auto setting the resolution to beyond my native resolution, and it caused a memory leak. Once I figured out what the issue was, it ran fine. The dog sled could use a bit of polish; my main annoyance with the game was the dog sled constantly getting the physics glitched by the terrain or objects in the world, flipping over and flying through the air. Not a major issue, mind you, just annoying as they have included an easy-to-use key-bind to reset the sled. Soon I will dig into the survival aspect of the title again and see how I fare this time at making more than a few days.

Review written by DamageInc.for Zeepond.com!